Arab foreign ministers called on Wednesday for a UN-backed peace plan for Syria to be put into action after President Bashar al-Assad agreed to the proposal, which urges an end to violence but does not demand the Syrian leader step down.
Arab ministers meeting in Baghdad for an Arab League summit on Thursday endorsed the six-point proposal of UN-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan, which seeks a ceasefire and political dialogue that Iraq called a "last chance" for Syria to resolve the crisis without greater bloodshed.
Syria accepted Annan's proposal, the latest effort to broker an end to more than a year of fighting, but on Wednesday Damascus rejected any initiatives taken by the summit and said it would deal only with individual Arab states, as the League had suspended Syria because of its internal violence.
"We cannot be impartial on this matter of daily violence, killing and bloodletting," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told reporters at end of the summit's second day. "The international resolution, which Syria has approved, we believe it's a positive and constructive step... But it needs implementation," he said. Arab states, split over how to deal with a crisis in Syria that threatens to inflame the region's sectarian faultlines, appear to have backed away from their initial proposal that Assad step aside to allow his deputy to organize talks.